Melencolia

The ruins of Llano del Rio stand as a fragmentary reminder of lost utopian possibilities: its remnants sit on the fringes of exurban housing developments of Lancaster, Palmdale, and Santa Clarita, testifying to the transformation of the high desert from countercultural fantasia to commuter utopia. Melencolia 1 (Llano del Rio) and Melencolia 2 (Pearblossom Highway) emerge out of an ambivalent desire to confront these histories. A red replica of Durer’s enigmatic polyhedron, drawn from his 1514 Melencolia print, has been reimagined as an intruder in the California desert. Appearing adjacent to a commuter community or among the ruins of Llano del Rio, this sci-fi apparition speaks at once to socialist pasts and to life in the heart of Trump's America.

The Reef

In collaboration with Alejandro Dobie-Gonzalez.

Public project and two-channel video installation, 2017.

The Reef exists in two times. In its original form, the project took place inside The Reef/LA Mart parking lot in South Los Angeles. An 11-foot tall tower of speakers, aimed at the current Reef building, played back the entire Los Angeles City Council Planning and Land Use Management Committee hearing in which the site's $1.2 billion redevelopment plan was under discussion. During the public comment period, it was revealed that the development would indirectly displace 43,000 neighborhood residents, yet the project passed.

In its second incarnation, full-length video is projected onto two facing sign-boards that suggest, alternately, developer or activist signs.

Under Development

High definition projected video, cinder blocks, 2016.

Under Development is an essay film in fragments.

Untitled (Performance Scripts)

Unlimited multiple, 2016.

There Are The Visible Lines and The Invisible Lines

Two-channel video projection, 2016.

Drawing on original documents from the 1936 Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the National Archives in Washington D.C., this two-channel projection juxtaposes street-level views with microfilm transfer footage of the neighborhood survey forms that effectively instituted "redlining" as a U.S. government-backed practice.

We Are Watching

ICE-POPS

ICE-POPS (Interested Critical Explorers of Privately-Owned Public Space). Public research project initiated in the wake of Occupy Wall Street, whose focus was to map privately-owned public spaces and their legal uses in cities across the United States.